Briefing: Personal touch still key to good service

In this digital age, more and more customer service interactions are taking place online and through multiple channels. This means that the hospitality industry’s practice of good service needs to adjust to accommodate all touch points. Northridge Group’s recent study found that over half of consumers (55%) need to use two or more communication channels before an issue is resolved. There is no substitute for personal responses, listening skills, and swift problem solving, regardless of the channel.

Hospitality experts discuss good service:

Where there are digital touch points these need to be properly monitored. But across industries, companies are terrible at being responsive online. Super Office’s, 2017 Customer Service Benchmark Report states that that 41% of companies do not respond to customer service emails.

This report also found that; “80% of businesses believe they provide excellent customer service, in fact only 8% of customers believe they are actually receiving excellent service.” This is a reminder to all not to be complacent. In hospitality, where service is paramount, companies should always be checking in on their customer’s opinions about there products and services, and adjust where they are found to fall short.

Northridge’s study has once again shown that great service can be a truly differentiating factor with six in ten consumers (58%) going out of their way to buy a product or service from a company if they know they will receive excellent customer service.

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